Co-author of Climate Code Red, David Spratt will present the latest climate science and its links to increasing extreme weather events worldwide. Australia has experienced record high temperatures, heatwaves and bushfires already this year with the Bureau of Meteorology adding two new colours to its weather forecasting chart to take the highest temperature up from 50 to 54 degrees. In 2012 climate science observations saw a record summer Arctic sea ice melt, record Greenland ice sheet melt, record permafrost warming, as well as increasing floods, cyclones, droughts and heatwaves. With climate scientists predicting more extreme events, David also shows what we can expect at the 2 and 4 degree warming scenarios. David is also an experienced activist and will talk about the urgent action we can take to tackle the climate emergency.

Thank you to the University of Melbourne Energy Institute, our Zero Carbon Australia project partners for supporting us in bringing you this event.

A local resilience-building project about climate extremes.

Visions of Resilience: Anglesea 2037 is part of a larger research project Transforming Institutions for Climate Extremes. This project is led by Che Biggs at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL) at the University of Melbourne. It aims to understand how communities and institutions can prepare and become more resilient to disruptive climate conditions. Anglesea was chosen as an ideal case-study site because it faces multiple climate hazards such as fire, drought and sea level rise but it also has a creative community and a strong local identity.

The images and articles you see on the Visions of Resilience: Anglesea 2037 blog are glimpses of possible futures. They depict strategies and ideas about how Anglesea could become more resilient to the more extreme possible impacts of climate change. The ideas represented have been developed from a workshop involving Anglesea community members. In the workshop people were asked to propose adaptation strategies in response to a series of challenging future scenarios that describe Anglesea in the year 2037. These scenarios were built from an assessment of climate model projections, historical records from along the Great Ocean Road and interviews with Anglesea residents. The small number of glimpses you see were combined and synthesised from more than 100 ideas developed in the workshop. Treat them as a window into a range of possible futures that might exist. We encourage you to comment on what is good or not good about the way they respond to challenges from climate change.

Why this project? When managing disaster risk, government and private sector organisations often rely heavily on ‘probability’ or ‘expert’ assessments of the likely type, extent and frequency of negative impacts. This can come unstuck when disasters occur outside what has been predicted and planned for. Transforming Institutions for Climate Extremes is a response to this problem. It responds to the call for new methods to improve community resilience and help communities improve disaster planning. It seeks to explore how prepared our communities, our decision-makers and decision-making processes are for the challenges of ‘new’ climate conditions. It will consider what institutional changes are needed to meet those challenges whilst ensuring community ownership.

Climate change in Anglesea? Anglesea lies in an area of southern Australia that will be affected by climate change in many ways. Climate models project that the most likely direct impacts will include changes to rainfall (drier but with more intense rainfall events), changes in temperature (warmer with more heatwaves), increasing acidity of oceans and rising sea levels. In-turn, these impacts are expected to affect a whole range of factors including increases in coastal erosion and days of extreme fire danger to increased risk of heat-stroke and changes to when plants flower and birds migrate. Climate Change is the effect of heat from the sun being trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere by gases produced by human activity. While some of these gases (like carbon dioxide) are found naturally in the atmosphere, as we increase their concentration above natural levels, they trap more heat from the sun – a bit like an insulation blanket.

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You can view the glimpses of a resilient Anglesea in 2037 and comment at www.anglesea2037.com. You can also like the Facebook page to be kept up to date with the project.

This national conference will explore innovative community responses to Australia’s ongoing vulnerability to natural disasters and need for effective disaster risk management and emergency services. Its emphasis is on community-based innovation, self-help and leadership, with the aim of identifying and strengthening effective grassroots community responses to the ravages of fire, flood, drought and wind. The conference will identify cases around the country where social innovation and self-help are being implemented in creative ways. The conference will bring together community innovators and leaders, service practitioners, researchers, policy makers, social entrepreneurs and workers in community agencies who are interested in furthering social innovation and community self-help in these areas.

From monster cyclones in Queensland to floods in Victoria, bushfires in Perth, heat waves in Russia, snow storms in Europe… in the last year the world in general, and Australia in particular, seem to have experienced a large number of extreme weather events. Were these events due to normal climate fluctuations or to climate change? – And does this question even make sense? Please join us to hear from prominent climate scientists about how unusual these events were and what the science knows – and doesn’t know – about what caused them.

How extreme is the recent extreme weather? Dr Karl Braganza, Manager of Climate Monitoring at the National Climate Centre of the Bureau of MeteorologyLa Niña, cyclones, mozzies, and myxo Professor Neville Nicholls, ARC Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University, and President of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic SocietyExtreme weather and climate change Professor David Karoly, ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Meteorology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne

A monthly discussion group hosted by Beyond Zero Emissions focusing on energy solutions to climate change.

In February, we’re connecting up the dots between the floods in Queensland, Victoria, Brazil, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan AND climate change. Co-author of Climate Code Red, David Spratt, will summarise opinions in the media and examine the links between climate change and increasing extreme weather events. David is also an experienced advocate and will talk about the action we can take to tackle the climate emergency.

Time: 6:30- 8pm Monday 7 February 2011

Location: The Wood Theatre, ECONOMICS & COMMERCE (Building 148) Room:G09 ground floor. Enter building by main foyer (opposite Old Arts). Theatre entrance is off the foyer and is clearly sign posted.University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC Click here for campus map. Thank you to the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Energy Institute, our Zero Carbon Australia project partners for supporting us in bringing you this event. Entry: Gold coin donation

Please see post below by Monique Decortis, who also runs the Climate Action Calendar. Email her on decortis@ bigpond.net.au to join the mailing list.

Our wildlife is doing it tough in the hot weather â€“ but a few minutes of your time can make a little difference, no matter where you live, simply by putting out fresh drinking water. Many people have birdbaths in a shady spot in their garden. These are great, but please also put out dishes with water on the ground in a shady, quiet spot in your gardens for animals such as skinks, lizards and echidnas, and for possums and sugar gliders who cannot get to birdbaths that are on a pedestal.

Ideally, use a shallow ceramic or terracotta dish so it does not tip over easily. Ensure that animals that fall into a dish can save themselves, by putting a rock (for shallow dishes) or a large stick or branch in any water container that is left outside. Many animals and birds are territorial, so put out several dishes of varying sizes around your garden.